How do we protect our daughters’ mental wellbeing?

It is a scary time to be raising daughters. According to a study from NHS England last week, more than one in four women aged 16-24 now have a mental health condition. They are the most at-risk group for psychological problems, with three times more young women than men reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety. And in 2014, self-harming among young women was three times more common than it had been in 2007.
So what can we do to help ensure the mental wellbeing of girls? Here are 10 ideas from our team of experts.
1. Don’t add to the pressure school places on them
“Schools are under... read more

Related news

‘Within the UK’s older population in particular, those finding it “very difficult to get by financially” are eight times more likely to report reduced mental wellbeing compared with those who are comfortably off.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Getty...

The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where a resident therapist attends to the mental health of employees. Photograph: Barry J Holmes Sometimes fresh perspectives on old problems hail from unlikely places and this has certainly been the case in Los...

Earlier this year, the CentreForum mental health commission launched a report calling for government to prioritise the promotion of mental wellbeing, in order to help reduce the burden of mental health problems. They suggested that this should be...

Young people in the UK have the poorest mental wellbeing in the world – with the exception of Japan – and list money, getting on in life and the rise of terrorism among their greatest concerns, according to an international survey of 20,000...

To the smartphone-addled among us, advising the use of apps to fix mental health problems might seem like telling someone who needs to get fit to live on jam and fags. But it’s happening all the same. While gadget and social media addiction are...

At a conference in Cannes eight years ago, I sat next to a producer who was working on an ambitious TV project about anthropology. We were both listening to a speech by a TV executive and I was in full conference flow, frenetically typing (badly) and...